A pensioner died in a bath of "virtually boiling" water at a care home, the city's coroner heard yesterday.

George Inwood, aged 68, was found lying in a bath containing water as hot as 98?C, in a staff bathroom at The Lodge, in Stechford, on April 1 last year.

An ambulance paramedic had to kick the door down after a care worker reported hearing screams from a locked staff bathroom.

The pensioner, who had Parkinson's disease and suffered from depression, had received respite care at the home in Yardley Fields Road on a voluntary basis since his wife died in May 2003.

Coroner Aidan Cotter, conducting the inquest at Birmingham Coroner's Court, heard a faulty thermostat meant water from the bath taps was twice as hot as the normal temperature of 43?C.

Heating engineer David Whitehouse, who tested the temperature of the water coming from the hot tap, told the jury: "When I ran the hot tap, the water was coming out at 98?C - there was basically steam coming out of the taps."

Evidence submitted by mechanical engineer Peter Swift also suggested the thermostatic mixing valve had been set too high.

Dr Peter Colloby, consultant pathologist at Heartlands Hospital, told the court how the father-of-three suffered at least 20 per cent burns to his body.

He also had severe coronary heart disease, with 80 per cent narrowing of his arteries, which may have led to a sudden heart attack.

Dr Colloby said: "The two elements - his coronary artery disease and the skin scalding - occurred at the same time and therefore I can't separate them."

Care worker Loretta Brown, who was on duty at The Lodge when Mr Inwood, a former Rover worker, died, said colleagues warned her to "be careful" using the staff bathroom as the water was too hot.

She said: "I did hear two cries and when I heard the second sound I called the manager at home who told me to dial 999."

Another worker, Claudia Dawkins, then said boiling water had been coming from the taps for at least five months before Mr Inwood's death.